While he has always wanted to visit New York City, Bill Anderson didn’t think he’d be seeing it this way.

Anderson, a substation electrician, and five Utilities Kingston co-workers — Phil Power, Sheldon Waterman, Tyler Rennick, Mark Revell and Chris Mills — will drive on Saturday to Long Island, N.Y., to join repair crews in trying to restore power to the area, which was devastated by hurricane Sandy and the so-called “superstorm.”

Anderson and company will relieve the six Utilities Kingston workers who drove there a week ago Saturday to lend a hand. That sextet drove to Long Island in three utility trucks.

Anderson has been in touch with the workers in Long Island, who said that their experience has been “life changing.”

“People up here don’t realize what’s going on down there,” Anderson was told.

Not only do crews have to repair the damage sustained during the superstorm, a snowstorm hit the region Wednesday.

“Now, new trees have come down, new lines have come down, either old ones or ones that just got put up again… and you’re also fighting snow,” he said.

While Anderson was told his crew will stay in a motel, his predecessors weren’t so lucky.

First, they had to sleep in the back of a transport truck, then it was a warehouse, then it was a gigantic tent that accommodated up to 1,000 people, and then, finally, they managed to get a few rooms at an inexpensive motel.

Some of them had trouble sleeping, particularly in the mass shelters, and, with the long workdays, were feeling run down.

The meals were sporadic and maintaining proper hygiene was sometimes a challenge.

Anderson was also told to expect to log 16-hour days.

Since the volunteer workers are still being paid — by New York State and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Anderson said, not Utilities Kingston — the initial interest for some may have been the money.

“The guys down there wrote us that, ‘I don’t know if the money’s worth what we’re going through down here and what we’re seeing,’” Anderson recalled.

“The boys are going to see stuff down there that they’re not prepared to see, probably.”

By that, Anderson means the utter devastation that has uprooted the million or so residents in the Long Island area alone.

Most of the power lines, for example, were above ground and more susceptible to damage. Anderson said that, from what he’s been told, crews are still trying to get the main power line up and running, let alone power lines along residential streets.

Even though he’s been working for Utilities Kingston for 33 years now, Anderson feels he might still learn a thing or two from counterparts while he’s there.

“You have to work side by side with people in your own trade, you see different equipment and techniques, and you gain knowledge and you make new friends,” he explained.

The work should, in the end, be gratifying, Anderson believes.

“I just remember the emotional feeling that we had when the ice storm was over,” he said.

Anderson, 54, is convinced that he and his co-workers will return to Kingston with a different perspective.

“You can get complacent with your own job and then when you say things could be worse, and actually see it with your own eyes, it gives you a whole new perspective on life,” Anderson offered.

“I have no doubt when those six guys come back they’ll be changed people, and when the six of us come back, we’ll be changed people, too.”